National survey of pre-treatment HIV drug resistance in Cuban patients.

Background: The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends a method to estimate nationally representative pretreatment HIV drug resistance (PDR) in order to evaluate the effectiveness of first -line treatments. The objective of the present study was to determine the prevalence of PDR in Cuban adults infected with HIV-1.

Materials And Methods: A cross-sectional study in Cuban adults infected with HIV-1 over 18 years was conducted.

HIV-1 Genetic Variability in Cuba and Implications for Transmission and Clinical Progression.

INTRODUCTION Serological and molecular HIV-1 studies in Cuba have shown very low prevalence of seropositivity, but an increasing genetic diversity attributable to introduction of many HIV-1 variants from different areas, exchange of such variants among HIV-positive people with several coinciding routes of infection and other epidemiologic risk factors in the seropositive population. The high HIV-1 genetic variability observed in Cuba has possible implications for transmission and clinical progression. OBJECTIVE Study genetic variability for the HIV-1 env, gag and pol structural genes in Cuba; determine the prevalence of B and non-B subtypes according to epidemiologic and behavioral variables and determine whether a relationship exists between genetic variability and transmissibility, and between genetic variability and clinical disease progression in people living with HIV/AIDS.

Phylogenetic analysis of human T cell lymphotropic virus type 1 isolated from Cuban individuals.

The presence of infection by human T cell lymphotropic virus type 1 (HTLV-1) in Cuba has been previously documented. However, genetic information on the strains that circulate in the Cuban people remains unknown. The present work constitutes the first study of phylogenetic relationship of HTLV-1 Cuban isolates.

Transmitted HIV type 1 drug resistance in newly diagnosed Cuban patients.

Knowledge of the associated mutations to transmitted drug resistance (TDR) in strains of human immunodeficiency virus type 1 (HIV-1) constitutes a fundamental premise in epidemiological surveillance. In this present study, TDR from 200 Cuban patients who were diagnosed with HIV-1 between 2009 and 2011 was analyzed. By partial reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and sequencing of the HIV pol gene, an HIV subtype and transmitted resistance profile were determined.

HIV type 1 genetic diversity in newly diagnosed Cuban patients.

Knowledge of the genetic diversity of HIV-1 constitutes a fundamental premise in the epidemiological surveillance. In the present study, the HIV-1 genetic variability from 142 Cuban patients who were diagnosed with HIV-1 infection during 2009 and 2010 was determined. HIV-1 subtypes were determined by partial RT-PCR and sequencing of the HIV-1 pol gene.